Bath structure for treating wire in the form of a helical coil



June 5, 1956 H- KENMORE ET AL 7 9 BATH STRUCTURE FOR TREATING WIRE IN THE FORM OF A HELICAL COIL Filed Oct. 29, 1952 a 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY.$%

J1me 1956 H. KENMORE ET AL 3 9 BATH STRUCTURE FOR TREATING WIRE IN THE FORM OF A HELICAL. COIL.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 29, 1952 United States Patent 2,748,784 BATH STRUCTURE FOR TREATING WIRE IN THE FORM OF A HELICAL COIL Herbert Kenmore and Walter J. Manson, Jersey City,

N. J., assignors, by mesne assignments, to National- Standard Company, Niles, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application October 29, 1952, Serial No. 317,416

2 Claims. (Cl. 134-64) This invention relates to an improved liquid treating bath structure for the continuous treatment of heavy metal strips, tubes and wires formed into the shape of a helix. More particularly the invention relates to a liquid treating bath structure for the electroplating of heavy metal strips, tubes and wires in helical form.

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Serial No. 732,812 filed March 6, 1947, now abandoned.

The apparatus of this invention is particularly desirable for the manufacture of plated wire by the processes disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 2,495,695 and in our U. S. application Serial No. 184,884 filed September 14, 1950, now Patent Number 2,680,710 dated June 8, 1954. In Patent No. 2,495,695, a heavy wire, formed into the shape of a helix is fed througha series of baths by suspending the helix on a horizontal roller and rotating the helix by rotating the supporting roller to continuously feed the wire through the series of baths situated below said supporting roller. In this process the coils of the helix are formed of exactly the same size and are held to the same sizes throughout the treating process by pressing a top roller against the supporting roller. According to said application No. 184,884, wire from any desired source is drawn, straightened and then continuously formed to the shape of a helix immediately before it is fed to the treating bath. In this latter process the drawing gives the wire a temper or stiffness and the helix forming means is devised so as to give the helix a definite pitch as well as a uniform curvature oncoil size and therefore in -such a process a top roller for holding the coils being treated to size is not necessary. In any event it is essential to prevent any excessive friction between the wire being fed through the baths and the bath structures. Friction can be prevented by having workmen spaced every few feet along the apparatus to manually push the coils away from any bath partition where the friction has become excessive.

Among the objects of this invention therefore is to provide a bath structure which substantially completely prevents frictional contact between the wire and a bath wall when the wire passes from one bath into another.

When friction occurs between said wire and a bath wall or partition several deleterious effects result but one of the most damaging is that the wire may be slowed up back of the point where friction occurs thereby decreasing the size of the coil ahead of the friction point and increasing the size of a coil back of the friction point. This is especially noticeable when the speed of the wire passing through the bath is increased. A variation of more than one half in. in the diameter of the coils pro duces an inferior product.

Among other objects of the invention is to provide an apparatus for continuously treating heavy wire in the form of a helix of relatively large diameter to a number of successive liquids through which said wire may be moved at a speed of over feet per minute without ice 2 having its coil size changed due to frictional contact with the structure of the baths.

The term bath is sometimes used to refer to the liquid held in a vessel and sometimes used to refer to the vessel which holds the liquid. In the specification and claims of this invention it will be understood that the latter meaning Will be understood since the invention relates to an apparatus.

The objects of this invention are attained by providing a series of baths with separating walls that substantially bisect the space between two adjacent coils of a helix. The baths of the series may be separately constructed for juxtapositioning or may be all formed in one unitary structure as for example by adding partitions to one long vessel adapted to hold all of the separate liquids desired for the treatment.

The invention both as to its organization and its method of operation together with additional objects and advantages thereof will best be understood from the following description of specific embodiments thereof. When read in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a side cross sectional view of one form of the apparatus.

Fig. 2 is a top plan View of a central portion of the apparatus of Fig.1 with the top roller omitted.

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view of the apparatus of Fig. ltak'en at the electroplating bath.

In the apparatus of Fig. '1, the wire 12 which has'been previously formed to a helix in which the individual coils have a uniform diameter either adjacent the apparatus or previously is fed onto storage roller 14 by the feed rolls 61, '62 which are geared together at '65, 66. The roller 18 rotates at the same peripherial speed as roller "62 being fixed to the same shaft as roller 62 both of which are rotated by means of gear wheel '13 which is rotated from apower source not shown.

The device of Fig. 1 is shown with a top roller '15 (similar to that of Patent No. 2,495,695) adapted to prevent the coils of the helix 12 from changing their size. The pressure of roller 15 on roller 10 may be adjusted by means of screws '17 and 18.

The roller iii) 'holds the coils of helix 12 so that 'the lower portion thereof dips into the different liquids held by the vessel. The vessel 1 comprises 'one long container divided into a number of compartments by the transverse partitions 5.

The partitions 5 extend between the sides 3 and 4 of the vessel 1. The intermediate portion of each partition comprises a section 6 at one side which slopes upwardly to the left. As seen in Figs. 1 and 2 and a section 7 which slopes upwardly to the right as seen in Figs. 1 and 2. These two sections 6 and '7 are connected together at approximately the center line of the vessel 1. The lower portion 2 of the partition and the extreme side portions 9 may be formed so as to make a substantial right angled connection with the sides 3 and 4 and the bottom of the vessel. The various bends in the partitions 5 are shown as being substantially at right angles but it will be understood that these bends may be rounded out or not as sharp as shown as long as the respective sides of the partitions 5 slope away from the helical coils. It will be seen from an examination of Fig. 2, for example, that the coil 12 leaves one bath, passes over roller 10 and then enters directly into the next bath without coming close to the partition which separates the two baths. The guide bar 18, including guide elements 8, may be employed to assure that the helical coil 2 remains in proper position with respect to the vessel 1.

A typical sequence of baths for electroplating nickel is as follows. The first bath 39 contains a cleaning liquid of any commercial type such as Oakite (a sodium phosphate and carbonate composition); the baths 40 and 41 contain cold water rinses; bath 42 contains an acid solution of, for example, 15% sulfuric acid; baths 43 and 44 contain cold water for rinsing; bath 45 contains the plating solution; bath 46 contains another cold Water washing solution and bath 47 contains a hot water wash.

One reason the uniformity in size of the coils is so important is that in order to obtain uniform plating the electrode structure such as shown in Fig. 3 is employed. The electrodes 34 and 35 will be seen to be substantially concentric with respect to the helical coil, the electrodes 34 following the outside part of the helix and the electrode 35 extending inside of the helix. It will be seen that a small change in diameter will cause the helix 12 to approach very close to one or the other of electrodes 34 and 35. Where uniformity of product is to be maintained, the distance of the wire helix 12 from both electrodes 34 and 35 should be approximately the same and if it should happen that a large diiference in diameter occurs then burning of the wire as the result of close approach to one of the electrodes results.

The bath structure shown operates to prevent any substantially frictional contact between the helix 12 and the bath partitions. As an example of the improvement obtained, it has been estimated that to operate the device of Patent No. 2,495,695 at wire speeds of over 10 feet per minute one man stationed every 2% feet on both sides of the machine would be required to prevent the individual coils of the helix from getting out of shape whereas with apparatus including the structure of the present invention an occasional checking of the apparatus by one man is all that is necessary. The said machines have been operated at speeds of over 100 feet per minute with these conditions prevailing.

The features and principles underlying the invention described above in connection with specific exemplifications will suggest to those skilled in the art many other modifications thereof. It is accordingly desired that the appended claims shall not be limited to any specific features or details shown and described in connection with the exemplifications thereof.

We claim:

1. In an apparatus for treating heavy gauge wire which includes means for suspending and rotating a horizontally extending helix comprising a plurality of coils of wire to continuously move the said helix horizontally, the improvement which comprises a plurality of horizontally arranged juxtapositioned treating baths adapted to surround the suspended portions of a series of the coils of said helix, said juxtapositioned baths having bottom and side walls and being separated from each other by end walls, corresponding sides of said baths being in alignment and opposite sides thereof being substantially parallel, said end walls being secured to the side walls and the bottoms of said baths, each of said end walls having a first side region adjacent the top thereof which is obliquely positioned with respect to at least one of the bottom and the side walls of said baths towards one end of the side walls and each of said end walls having a second side region opposite said first side region which is similarly obliquely positioned in a direction opposite to that of the first side region, said end walls being of substantially uniform thickness throughout and corresponding parts of each of said end walls being substantially parallel.

2. In an apparatus for treating heavy gauge wire which includes means for suspending and rotating a horizontally extending helix comprising a plurality of coils of wire to continuously move the said helix horizontally, the improvement which comprises a plurality of horizontally arranged juxtapositioned treating baths adapted to surround the suspended portions of a series of the coils of said helix, said juxtapositioned baths having bottom and side walls and being separated from each other by end walls, each of said separating end walls being vertical and perpendicular with respect to the side walls and the bottom of the baths at the lower portion thereof but sloping away from the vertical and in the direction of the movement of the helical axis of the coils at one side of said baths, and sloping in the opposite direction on the opposite side of said baths, said sloping portions having a maximum displacement at the top of the said end wall whereby the top portion of said coils of the rotating helix may pass out of one bath and directly into the next.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,601,642 Parker Sept. 28, 1926 1,917,419 Andresen July 11, 1933 2,495,695 Camin et a1. Jan. 31, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 565,764 Germany Dec. 7, 1932 

